PRO BASKETBALL; Late Miss By Horry Bodes Ill For Lakers

There have been several omens for the Los Angeles Lakers this season: an 11-19 start, the failure to gain home-court advantage for a playoff round, the season-ending injury to Rick Fox. But perhaps the most powerful one was the way in which Tuesday's Game 5 loss to the San Antonio Spurs ended.

Robert Horry, a legendary clutch shooter, has always been able to make the game-winning, series-defining 3-pointer. He buried the Spurs in the 1995 playoffs while a member of the Houston Rockets. He finished off the Philadelphia 76ers in the N.B.A. finals two years ago, and he prolonged the Lakers' dynasty for another season with his heroic buzzer-beating 3 against Sacramento in last year's Western Conference championship series.

But in Game 5 on Tuesday, Horry's 3-point shot just before the buzzer sounded fell almost halfway through the net, rattled around the rim and out, leaving the Lakers 96-94 losers and a bucket shy of completing a remarkable comeback from 25 points down.

Was Horry's miss the last sign that the Lakers, who over the past three years have always overcome the most daunting odds, have finally lost their golden touch? The Lakers, of course, think not.

''Shooting a basketball is not necessarily a sign of anything to come,'' Derek Fisher, the Lakers point guard, said today. ''Obviously, you have luck or good fortune or bad fortune. Things kind of come and go at times, and you have to be able to deal with those ebbs and flows. But in terms of it meaning anything bigger than that or the sign of the end, I feel like we have more control over it than just one missed shot or one missed play. I feel like we have more control over our destiny than outside forces or external things.''

The first thing the Lakers must control is Game 6 Thursday at Staples Center in Los Angeles. They are down three games to two, and a loss will end their three-year reign as champions.

It will be the Lakers' fifth elimination game in their recent title run, their fifth such game under Coach Phil Jackson. In the past, such circumstances have brought out their best.

In 2000, they overcame a 16-point deficit late in the third quarter to beat Portland in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals. Earlier that postseason, they defeated Sacramento in Game 5 of the first round. And last season, they won Games 6 and 7 after falling behind Sacramento three games to two. The Lakers defied the odds last season; only 17 percent of N.B.A. teams have won a playoff series after trailing by 3-2.

Kobe Bryant, who keyed the Lakers' rally on Tuesday by scoring 13 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter, said the same fortitude that has made the Lakers champions will be on display in Game 6. ''We win championships for a reason,'' Bryant said after Tuesday's game. ''We have a fight in ourselves. I have a fight in me.''

But this year's situation is cloudier than the past three years'. External circumstances that mean far more than basketball keep injecting themselves, mainly for Jackson, who underwent angioplasty on Saturday and missed Game 4 on Sunday. His close friend and former Knicks teammate Dave DeBusschere died of a heart attack today, and Jackson was so affected that he refused to field questions from the news media. He did, however, look at film of Game 5 with his assistant coaches and make a brief statement. The Lakers did not practice, and only Fisher was made available for comment.

Internal forces are working against the Lakers as well. Jackson was not pleased with Shaquille O'Neal's performance on Tuesday. O'Neal had 20 points and 12 rebounds but struggled for the first three quarters. Bryant said O'Neal's left knee had been bothering him, but O'Neal did not mention it.

The Lakers' trainer, Gary Vitti, said today that O'Neal's knee would be fine.

Horry may not be the same clutch player that he has been in the past. He missed much more than a potential game-winner against the Spurs. He is 0 for 15 from 3-point range in this series and 2 for 35 in this year's playoffs. Considering his recent woes, it would have truly been remarkable if he had made the game-winning 3-pointer in Game 5. But the Lakers continue to believe. What else can they do?

''If I was a betting man, if he's in that opportunity tomorrow, I'd bet my money that he'd make it,'' Fisher said of Horry. ''I have no worries about whether Robert's going to be there for us.''

He always has been, except for Tuesday. The basketball world will find out what that means in Game 6.